


Love Them In Our Place

by GothMoth



Series: Ectobers Ectoplasmic Splatters [23]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Angst, Dissociation, Future Fic, Gen, Hurt, Hurt No Comfort, Immortality, Loss, Trauma, immortal danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-18 01:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21266357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: Hurt and injuries always happen but it’s the hurt that hurts the most.
Series: Ectobers Ectoplasmic Splatters [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511411
Comments: 8
Kudos: 108





	Love Them In Our Place

**Author's Note:**

> Ectober 2019 Day 27: Reset

Danny leans over the edge of the building, looking down at Tuck. Quickly wrapping his arm around Sam and flying down to fetch him. 

Tuck goes to stand a few times but promptly keeps falling back over. Danny gets over realising that Tuck’s leg’s all messed up and bleeding. He firmly ignores and glosses over how the red’s just a shade too pale and a sight too thick. 

Danny pats his shoulder, “Sam’ll have you patched up quick”, while Sam gets to work on his leg. 

Sam pauses and stares at Tuck, who jerks. Danny seeing an electrical zap, just a mild flashback to the _accident _he’s sure. While Sam frowns and starts looking over Tuck’s head and neck. Sighing after a beat, poking Danny and smirking, “why don’t you go find that stupid Betrex who’s running around? We won’t be long”. 

Danny tilts his head and worries his lip slightly but nods, knowing his friends always had their reasons, he could always count on them, and flies off. 

* * *

“You need a full patch up. Some wires got crossed”. 

“C-Crossed might be-be-be an under-er-er-statement Sam-m-m”.

“Yeah...I can’t do it you know. He has to”.

“I know-w. T-Trust me I d-d-d-do. But the re-re-reminder will hurt-t-t him”. 

“It can’t be helped. You falling apart would be way worse”.

“S-S-Sucks”.

“Yeah.....Alright lets get you up, try not to be too jerky”. 

“Fuck-uck yoooooou”.

* * *

It doesn’t take them too long to catch up with Danny. Who’s tossing around a thermos. Danny looks to them and tilts his head with worry, Tuck didn’t really look ‘healed’ or ‘okay’. Kind of twitchy actually, something about that makes his stomach churn. Danny zips over with a frown, “what’s wrong?”.

The two friends share a look. Tuck frowning, “ne-ne-ne-need reset d-dude”. Danny blinks a couple times, his mind playing speed catch up. First wondering ‘what the heck Tuck means?’ And ‘why would he need something like that?’. Before things start dawning on him, brain remembering the year it is and everything that’s happened. The mental questions changing to, ‘but that’s not quite right’ and ‘there’s metal, why?’. Before his brain finally clicks. 

Sam pats Danny shoulder clearly seeing his eyes cloud over and darken, before he frowns and sighs with sadness, “right right, okay. It’s been a.....fuck....it been a long time”. 

“It-it-it-it’s okay dudeeeeee”, Danny cringes over the distorted voice. 

All three sit down, Danny running his fingers through his hair and the other two well aware Danny needs his readjustment time. He always did. Just the same as he’d act weird and a bit distant around them for a while as well. 

So she knows it’s best not to rub his back or try soothing him as he sobs quietly. Danny whispering, “fuck, goddamnit, why? Why did they? Fuck. I just, it”, Danny shakes his head and stands, walking off a bit and snapping, “immortality fucking sucks!”. Before shoving his hand in his pocket, thumbing over the circular device in there. His mental crap didn’t matter he had a....a....whatever, to fix. 

Both look away from him, knowing from experience that he doesn’t want to see their faces right now, as he walks back over and sits behind him. 

Neither calls Danny out on how jerky his fingers are or how they tremble as he uses the Ignition Key to open up the Tuck-bot’s diagnostics panel in his neck. Plugging the circular thing in and starting up the override and settings systems. 

Danny wipes at his eyes as he starts up the systems to destroy and reform any damaged wires or errors in the......robots......system. And sits there, leaning his forehead against the cool metal, so similar to flesh but missing warmth while the.....robot.....shuts down and begins the major systems repairs. 

Danny squeezes his hands and promptly starts crying again. Sniffling and coughing hard after a while. Sure he didn’t need to breathe, but it made him feel human. So he sucks in harsh breaths and tries so hard to ignore the refreshed knowledge that he was the only one here who even could breathe. Course, like always, that just makes it more noticeable. 

Shaking his head and standing up, walking off a bit, “_fuck. WHY?!??!?!?!_”.

The Sam-bot gets up and walks after him, knowing she can’t let him wander off, “Danny”.

Danny waves her off but doesn’t turn around, “I know I know I fucking know. I just, _fuck_. This always, _FUCK_!”.

The Sam-bot grabs his shoulder, “you need to stay. You’re ecto-field. It needs to be near. You know this”, she knows full well using names and pronouns will only hurt him. And she’s programmed to reduce his hurt and suffering. 

Danny spins around and shoves her off, “I fucking _know_!”, Danny walks back a little, then turns around and walks away more, then turns again, and again, and again. Functionally pacing. Roughing up his hair, before snapping at her, “they’re fucking _dead. DEAD_. And I just, and this just, and you. Robots and wires and and and. It’s been _so long_. I, fuck. I _forgot_. I just, this, fuck”. Danny turns around again, hugs his arms and heads back to the resetting, repairing....robot.... 

Danny just stands, hugging himself, and staring down at the...robot...”it’s not fair. It’s life but it’s just. I fucking hate this. Fuck my goddamn stupid ectoplasm-”. Danny cuts himself off as the..robot..jerks and makes a beeping noise. So Danny jerkily just collapses on his knees, unclenching his hands from his arms and reaching out to finish up. Tapping gently and shakily away at the buttons and eventually deactivating the Ignition Key and shoving it, aggressively and with a bit of hate, back into _that_ compartment in his pocket.

The Tuck-bot glances behind himself at Danny quickly, Danny’s staring and winces so the Tuck-bot looks forward again. The Sam-bot speaking from behind, “we’ll take watch tonight, you sleep. And take one of Nocturne’s dream pills”. Knowing being soothing or overly friendly wouldn’t help currently. Both can hear him go and curl up to sleep, indeed taking a pill, more than one; he was always taking more every-time. What he needed was to detach from them and mourn his friends, the _real _ones, for a while. Till he either healed from it, the loss, or dissociated hard enough that he thought the two robots _were_ the real ones again. That’s always what happened. 

So no matter how long it had been or how many times they broke down. He would keep them ticking and turning. And he would fall back into his false reality, because sometimes the truth just hurts too much. The more you live, the more truths like that you face and for someone who will be around forever, eventually everything will become too much and reality will fall away entirely. But these two robots would still be there, even if his mind wasn’t. 

**End. **


End file.
